Taneyev was a pupil of Tchaikovsky and a teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. During his lifetime his chamber music was widely considered on a par with that of the great Viennese masters. The String Trio in E flat major, originally scored for violin, viola and the rarely-heard tenor viola (played on cello here), is a mature work with echoes of Mozart and Beethoven. The Piano Quartet in E major is a large-scale, passionate work, sonorous and melodic, with a transfiguring beauty. It has always retained an honored place in the Russian chamber repertoire.
